How long does it take to read Zen and the Birds of Appetite?
Zen and the Birds of Appetite by Thomas Merton takes about 2 hours 37 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 2 hours 37 minutes
An evening's read
First published 1968. 143 pages, about 39,325 words.
6 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 4 hours 22 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 2 hours 37 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 1 hour 38 minutes |
The page count is the median across 7 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
Collection of essays about complex Asian concepts with a Western directness. Merton believed that there must be a little of Zen in all authentic creative and spiritual experience and the Study of Zen, then, is not a study of doctrine, still less a polemic about ultimate religious principles, it is simply an attempt to reach the ground of pure, direct experience which underlies all creative thought and activity. His essays approach this experience through Japanese art and philosophy (Kataro Nishida), through the Zen of Suzuki, and through the Classic Zen Masters themselves. Dialogue between Merton and Suzuki explores the many congruencies of Christian mysticism and Zen.
Subjects: Zen Buddhism, Addresses, essays, lectures, Zen, East and West, Religious aspects
